We aren't all that different
by Just Mari
Summary: A new year at Hogwarts, and Luna still doesn't feel at home in her House. After Dumbledore's speech she gets an idea how to improve inter-house relationships and get out of Ravenclaw at the same time...


Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. All original characters in this story belong to Fawkes la Feenix, except Cara and Arthur, who will appear later.  
  
Author's Note: Many thanks to my wonderful beta Amie who helped me a lot with this!  
  
Luna Lovegood felt exhausted and was surprised at how shattered she was after long hours of doing nothing except sitting on a train and either staring out of the window or at her magazine. She sat in a compartment of the Hogwarts Express that was full of people, but nobody bothered to talk to her.  
  
She had decided to ignore the others just like they ignored her, and the really boring part of the day began. Hours and hours passed; the sky slowly became darker and the landscape changed. It had been hours since she had finished her copy of The Quibbler that now lay on top of all her things in her trunk, carefully placed at right angles to her books.  
  
Eventually, when everything outside had become black, the train stopped and students of all ages flooded out of the doors. She herself was one of the last ones to leave the train and wander over to the carriages with the Thestrals. Of course, by then most of the carriages were full, but in the end she managed to find a seat in a carriage full of little children who looked like they could be second years.  
  
They arrived at Hogwarts and went to the Great Hall. The usual scenario began: a long, long line of first years entered the Hall, looking fearful, and everyone stared at them; Professor McGonagall fetched the Sorting Hat and her list of students; the Hat sang and the Sorting began.  
  
At first, she still paid attention to what was going on, saw "Allen, Nina" become a Slytherin, clapped for "Asher, Darby", the first Ravenclaw, and stared at "Bartley, Rory", whose head was nearly too big for the Hat, but finally was sorted into Hufflepuff nonetheless.  
  
Then, she started to lose interest. After all, every year was the same procedure and, as she didn't have any relatives that would be the right age for Hogwarts, she didn't really care.  
  
However, when the Sorting was nearly over, the last girl to be sorted caught her eye. "West, Julia", McGonagall called and the girl stepped forward. She was unbelievably small and looked like could only be eight years old. Luna never would never have thought she was eleven already.  
  
After a short while, the Hat shouted "SLYTHERIN" and the Slytherins cheered and clapped. Professor McGonagall carried away the Hat and stool and Dumbledore slowly rose to his feet.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. I don't want to bore you with many words. At least, not now: eat!"  
  
With that, the golden plates before Luna filled themselves with food. Hungrily, she piled her plate up with golden-brown fried potatoes and fat, juicy sausages and filled her goblet with cool Pumpkin Juice. After a second and third helping she stopped eating, resting for a while before she chose an apple for dessert.  
  
Slowly it became quiet as students began to look up to the High Table. As Dumbledore got up, even the last ones stopped talking. Luna allowed her gaze to wander up to the High Table, but thought with a tiny sigh that she didn't much care what the Headmaster had to tell them because it was the same every year anyway:  
  
Nobody is allowed into the Forbidden Forest without the permission and company of a teacher. Mr Filch has added fifty new objects to his list of forbidden things.  
  
This is your new Defence against the Dark Arts- teacher, Professor XYZ.  
  
This year, it was a woman that looked Arabic. Dumbledore introduced her as "Layla Al- Kabbani", so Luna felt that her theory was a valid one.  
  
Having heard all that, Luna got ready to rise and leave as soon as possible to get to bed, but it seemed Dumbledore did not want her to sleep just that early.  
  
After the polite applause that had followed his short speech, Dumbledore hadn't sat down again but remained standing instead. He spread his arms, like pulling them all into an imaginary embrace, and suddenly there was complete silence in the Great Hall. Everyone in the Hall was staring at the Headmaster. His appearance had changed, though not physically. For a moment, he wasn't only their old and sometimes weird Headmaster, but one of if not the most powerful wizard in the world. Many understood only then why he was the only one Voldemort feared- he had some kind of aura around him that was not really visible, but they all knew nevertheless that it was there.  
  
Then he leaned forward, put his hands on the table and gave one of his familiar friendly smiles with a twinkling glimmer in his eyes. Suddenly, everything was over- the aura of power had vanished like being covered with a blanket and Dumbledore was just their Headmaster again.  
  
Slowly, he looked around the Hall like seeing it all for the first time. He allowed his gaze to slowly and steadily take in the whole room. After studying the room, he cast his eyes to the students and looked over the House tables intently.  
  
When his eyes fixed on to the Ravenclaw table, Luna suddenly felt observed. It seemed that he was staring directly into her eyes with a gaze so intense that she thought he was surely able to look directly into her heart.  
  
The girl next to her sighed quietly and shuddered. Luna wondered whether she was the only one that felt that way or whether his look affected all of them, or at least the majority of them.  
  
Finally, his look wandered further and, when his eyes reached the doors, he cleared his throat and looked at the students again.  
  
"As I said before- welcome to Hogwarts, ladies and gentlemen," he started, still with a friendly smile.  
  
His countenance changed, leaving his face grave and unusually serious. He continued with a hint of urgency creeping into his voice.  
  
"I have a request- to all of you. Don't live past the tasks your time gives you and be glad that there is hope after all.  
  
"Many looks ask me what this is supposed to mean. I'm sure it is very easy to understand; the tasks your time gives you are obvious, I think: fight evil; stand up for your opinion and don't cower in fear of more or less important men. When every one of you does live up to the tasks your time gives you, then there is hope. For all of us. For a peaceful future. Or, at least, for a future that is more peaceful than it is these days.  
  
"In these dark times, it is very important to be united. I don't simply refer to your little groups inside your houses, but to the school as a whole. You are not only to be united in your houses- the houses themselves should bury their animosities and become united once more, as was the case many, many years ago.  
  
"Together, we're strong. Together, we have the power to stave off Voldemort's rise to power a while longer." He stopped and smiled at his students, many of whom had a pained expression on their faces.  
  
"You know, fearing his name won't be helpful in our fight against evil. Fear of the name only increases the fear of the thing itself. We don't want that, do we?  
  
"Of course, I understand no one is going to make new friends in all the other houses immediately and leave their old friends behind. That would be nonsense. But I want each and every one of you to try to understand the others more, instead of hating each other without any real reason. I want you to respect your fellow students and their opinions, even if you don't agree with them. That doesn't make their opinion less worthy than yours. I want all of you to put personal enmities under our common aim and stand united against the enemy. Thank you."  
  
Luna was caught in the spell of his words for some moments. It was not simply what Dumbledore had said; although, of course, that was the most important part. However, the way his words elegantly flowed between them, filling the students with a quiet peace that spread through the hall like fine rain, held her enraptured. Again, like the aura he had had around him before, it was something she couldn't quite put her finger on- it was the tone of his voice, the power behind it and the urgency that spoke through every single syllable.  
  
Eventually, somebody at the Gryffindor table began to clap and slowly everyone joined in, even the teachers and a larger proportion of the Slytherins than Luna had thought possible. Although, of course, many of them refused to applaud Dumbledore and sat there with folded arms and cool expressions on their faces, but nobody had honestly expected more of them.  
  
At the High Table, something strange happened. Professor McGonagall stood up, too. The noise slowly faded and many stared at her curiously. She cleared her throat delicately and started speaking. Luna saw some red spots appearing on her already flushed cheeks.  
  
"If you will allow me, Professor Dumbledore, my dear colleagues, I want to add something: I have been thinking a lot during the holidays and came to the conclusion that the 'house-reunion' should not only be advanced by the staff, but also and especially by the students. We want each and every one of you to participate when we are about to fight the most evil and cruel wizard who has ever existed. I am sure we have many open and creative students. I am sure that some of you might have some good ideas on how to improve relations between students as well. I beg everyone who has even a vague idea that might help to come to my office at any time. Thank you."  
  
She sat down again and polite applause rattled through the hall. Her speech, however, had not left an impression as strong as Dumbledore's and slowly students started talking again and soon went to the doors. Prefects started collecting their first years around them and lead them out of the Great Hall and towards their dormitories. Luna quickly got up too and went out after the Hufflepuff first years, who were chattering excitedly.  
  
She slowly trotted towards the Ravenclaw common room, still thinking about Dumbledore and McGonagall's speeches. Her feet had found the way automatically and, before she knew it, she found herself standing in front of the old oak door that marked the entrance to their common room.  
  
The knots and whorls of the wood began to move fluidly until they resembled the familiar face of the Ravenclaw door. "Password?" it asked in a bored voice.  
  
Luna opened her mouth to answer- and closed it again. What was the new password? She stood around for a few minutes, waiting for someone to come along. Finally a group of seventh years came up. None of them gave Luna even a little glance.  
  
She heard the bored "Password?" again, but they obviously knew it, as one of the girls answered "Bookworm" in an equally bored voice and the door swung open.  
  
Luna slowly shuffled through the open door. "Come on, hurry up, I don't have forever," the door grumbled, but Luna simply ignored it.  
  
She walked down the corridor to her dormitory, thinking about the holidays and her trip to Sweden with her father. She opened the door and walked into the room that was only dimly lit by two chandeliers on the walls. The six four-poster beds were standing in a row along one wall.  
  
All of the dark blue curtains were drawn back and all of the other girls were still awake, three of them sitting on one bed, giggling over some photos. Two other ones were leaning at two bed-posts in a very cool manner. One of them looked like a female version of Crabbe and Goyle, if not worse. She had a face like a bull and her body looked nearly square. The other one was tall and slender, but her arms and legs didn't fit the rest of her body; they seemed to be too long. She wore square glasses that made her otherwise pretty face look a rather strange.  
  
Luna stepped in, closed the door behind her and started to walk over to the opposite end of the room, where her bed stood, next to the window.  
  
The tall girl with the glasses sneered behind her back. "Oi, Lovegood," she said. "Where are your manners? Not even a little 'hello' for your dear friends after such a long time apart?"  
  
Luna turned around and stared at her for a while, her silvery eyes unblinking. The other girl started shifting- obviously she felt uncomfortable under her appraising stare.  
  
"Hello," Luna finally said in her dreamy voice.  
  
She turned around again and walked towards her bed. When she had reached it, she put down her clothes and put on her night-gown. Then, she stepped towards the window and looked out into the dark sky. The moon had started to rise over the Forbidden Forest and let the lake gleam in an unreal light.  
  
This was her favourite time. Luna loved the moon and the cool light that was not even its own. It was fascinating for her how it could be that bright without being lit from within. In the holidays, she often stayed awake only to watch the moon for hours and hours and dream away. Although, Sweden had proved to be something of a disappointment when she had learned that there wasn't a moon in Sweden in the summer, but there was sunlight around the clock. When eventually she returned home, she had stayed awake all night, in spite of being tired from the long journey, to bask in the rays of the moonlight that she had sorely missed.  
  
However, now that school had started again, she'd have to go to bed early again. She sighed and reluctantly pulled herself away from the window, shooting one last longing look at the moon. Then she went to her bed, lay down and closed the curtains around her.  
  
She could hear the other girls giggling. She wondered abstractly whether they were laughing about her, but soon realised with a brief flare of surprise that she honestly didn't care.  
  
One of them suddenly squealed and screamed, "Oh, he looks sooo cute!!"  
  
Obviously, they weren't talking about her, then, but about some holiday pictures. Luna fleetingly wondered why her room-mates were in Ravenclaw: they were not the slightest bit intelligent and seemingly had no interest in books or learning at all. The only subject that they attacked with any enthusiasm was boys, be it boys at Hogwarts, someone in Witch Weekly or their latest love from the last holidays.  
  
Luna thought her own placement was wrong, too. She had always thought she would have been suited to Gryffindor far more than Ravenclaw. She didn't like learning for starters. On the contrary, she thought they were taught far too many unnecessary things at Hogwarts. She didn't consider herself to be particularly brainy, either.  
  
On the other hand, she knew she was brave and could fight; she had always known it. But it had only been in June that she had finally been able to prove it. But how well she had proved it! She had fought against the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries alone and had also managed to carry the hurt Weasleys, Ron and Ginny, with her and away from the danger.  
  
But obviously the Hat had seen her differently and had put her into the wrong house for some unknown reason.  
  
She sighed, rolled herself into a ball under her sheets and pulled her teddy, Jack, into her arms. "Well, Jack," she whispered. "Another year at Hogwarts. And in the wrong house again. But at least I won't have to wait too much longer now. After this year, it's only two more years and I'm out of here... eventually."  
  
Her eye-lids became heavier and heavier, feeling increasingly as though they were filled with lead. Reluctantly, she closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep. As she drifted out of consciousness, she heard Dumbledore's voice in her head again and felt the power of his voice once again, filling her mind.  
  
Of course, I understand no one is going to make new friends in all the other houses immediately and leave their old friends behind.  
  
Suddenly, Luna was awake again- why shouldn't they do exactly that? An idea started to form itself in her head... and Luna knew, without a hint of arrogance, that it was brilliant.  
  
She closed her eyes again with a satisfied smile on her face. Finally, she had managed to find a way to get out of Ravenclaw. 


End file.
